Mechanical musical instrument.



No. 668,2l7. Patented Fab. l9

E. P. RIESSNER.

MECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

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No. 668,2l7. Patented Feb. I9, I91". E. P. RIESSNER.

IECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

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UNITED STATES PATENT ()FFICE.

ERNST PAUL RIESSNER,

OF LEiPsIo, GERMAN-Y.

MECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 668,217, dated February 19 1901. Application filed December 8,1899. serial No. 739,680 (No model.)

To (ti/Z whom it may concern/.-

Be it known thatl, ERNST PAUL RIESSNER, a subject of the King of Saxony, residing at Leipsic, Kingdom of Saxony, Germany, have invented acertain new and useful Mechanical Musical Instrument, of which the following is a description.

The present invention relates to that class of mechanical musical instruments which is provided with interchangeable notedisks; and it consists, essentially, in the details of construction herein set forth, and particularly pointed out in the claims.

In order to render the present specification more easily intelligible, reference is had to the accompanying drawings, in which similar letters of reference denote similar parts throughout the several views.

Figure 1 is a side elevation of the instrument, showing the casing in section. Fig. 2 is a front elevation, and Fig. 3 a plan, of Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a side elevation showing the notedisk holder thrown back and the note-disk carriage pushed in. Fig. 5 is a detail crosssection, drawn to a larger scale, of the mechanism for producing the notes. Fig. 6 is a similar detail view showing a modified form of the same mechanism. Fig. 7 is a detail side elevation showing the disks and diskcarrying spindle, and Fig. 8 is a front elevation of the disk with the spindle in section.

The spindle d, on which the note-disks are suspended, is fixed in the casing and provided with an enlargement at that point in its length which is occupied by the note-disk when the instrument is being played, and two conical surfacesf fat either side of the enlargement enable the disk to be pushed onto and off the said enlargement. The note-disks B B are placed in a carriage A, between the uprights A A of the same, the said carriage being adapted to run on rails mounted at either side of the casing. Each disk is provided with a central orifice large enough to fit over the enlarged part of the shaft d, said orifice being designated g, and thus the disks will hang slightly concentrically and loosely on the smaller part of the said shaft d. The mechanism for operating the teeth of the soundproducing comb c is constructed to occupy as little space as possible, so that the disks having an opening or orifice 01., Fig. 8, may be passed over the holder arm I) and the striking mechanism from the position shown in Fig. 1 to that in Fig. 4. When the carriage, with the required disks B B, is placed in the instrument, the arm or holder B is thrown back, as shown in Fig. L, and afterward turned down into the position shown at Fig. 1.

Two modifications of mechanism for vibrating the teeth of the combs c c are illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6. Referring to Fig. 5, a supporting-plate t' is arranged, at one side of which the striker-wheel p for the combs c o is mounted to rotate. A reciprocating lever o is mounted on the'plate and has one end pivoted to one arm on of a bell-crank lever, the other arm Z of which is normally pressed toward the plate by means of a spring n, so that the head It of the arm at has a tendency to pass into the openings of the note-disk engaging it, which movement of the said bellcrank lever has the effect of rotating the striker-wheel apart of a turn to strike the teeth of the combs, and thus sounding the required note. The plate 7; is mounted on the plate h, and one such striker mechanism is of course provided for each tooth of the combs. As indicated at Fig. 6, instead of the lever mechanism a chain 7" and chain-wheels may be employed, in which case a toothed Wheel (1 is engaged by the disk and operated to turn the striker-wheelp by means of projections on the lower surface of the said disk B. Each disk Bis provided with teeth around its edge, as indicated at the lower part of Fig. 2, and the said disk is rotated by means of a gear 8, mounted in the forked end of a lever O, pivotally supported at t and having its rearward end W held against a cam-disk m by means of a spring, the said cam-disk being rotated by the drum D of the driving-clockwork. A gear M is mounted on the pivot 25 of the lever O and serves to transmit the motion of a gear on the drum to the gear 4), which is fast to the driving toothed wheels of the disk. Thus by rotating the cam a; the lever G will be turned on its pivot and bring the driving-gear 3 into engagement with the disk B. When the tune has been played, the opening a will have been brought around again in position in front of the striker mechanism and the carriage A may be pushed inward, bringing the next disk into position to play and passing the one just used over the striker mechanism, and this operation may be repeated at the end of each tune until all the disks have been used up. Thus it will be seen that no necessity exists for throwing up the disk-holder when the tune-disk is shifted.

The two modifications of the striker mechanism described serve to show that the apparatus may be adapted for use in connection with any system of note-disk.

I claim as my invention- 1. In a mechanical musical instrument having a series of note-disks mounted on a movable carriage, the combination of a disk-supporting shafthaving an enlargement thereon to support the operative disk and inclined surfaces between said enlargement and the shaft, a pivotally'supported holder and orifice in each disk, said holder being so disposed as to be capable of lying within the orifices of all the disks when in operative position and striker mechanism for the combs also capable of passing through said disk-orifices substantially as described.

2. In a mechanical musical instrument the combination of a series of note-disks having orifices as specified, and striker mechanism and a holder to retain the disk in the proper position said holder being pivotally mounted and having its operative end supported on an arm of snfiicient length to reach through the orifices of all the disks on the carriage substantially as described.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of two witnesses.

ERNST PAUL RIESSNER.

Witnesses:

MORITZ SPREER, RUDOLPH FRICKE. 

